Overview
It is the spring of 1963. The young Quebec author Marie-Claire Blais, bursting with energy and talent, has just won a coveted Guggenheim fellowship. She chooses Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the place where she will begin her writer's apprenticeship with her mentor, Edmund Wilson. American Notebooks is much more than a fascinating autobiographical account of the intellectual flowering of a great writer. An album of exquisitely drawn literary portraits of companions, intellectuals, writers, musicians, artists and social activists of the period-Edmund and Elena Wilson; Mary Meigs; Maud Maugan; Barbara Deming; Truman Capote; Jacques Hebert, her first Quebec publisher, then senator; and many others-it also introduces many of the real life personalities who have inspired her fictional characters.
Full Product Details
Author: Marie-Claire Blais ,
Linda Gaboriau
Publisher: Talonbooks
Imprint: Talonbooks
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.50cm
, Length: 20.30cm
Weight: 0.255kg
ISBN: 9780889223585
ISBN 10: 0889223580
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 12 December 1996
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Awaiting stock
The supplier is currently out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out for you.
Reviews
I picked this up by chance, not having it on any list to get to one day -- but ended up reading it bit by bit during lunch breaks and spare moments. It kept me interested over a long while, as I read each short essay and then pondered it until I found time for the next. It seemed to capture a certain era, a particular style of artistic life, that I felt close to while I spent time with this book. It was an interesting and unexpected effect, and I'm always pleased when I'm surprised by my reading. - the indextrious reader Marvelously constructed ... beautifully cadenced character studies. - Books in Canada
“I picked this up by chance, not having it on any list to get to one day -- but ended up reading it bit by bit during lunch breaks and spare moments. It kept me interested over a long while, as I read each short essay and then pondered it until I found time for the next. It seemed to capture a certain era, a particular style of artistic life, that I felt close to while I spent time with this book. It was an interesting and unexpected effect, and I'm always pleased when I'm surprised by my reading.” – the indextrious reader “Marvelously constructed … beautifully cadenced character studies.” – Books in Canada
Author Information
Marie-Claire Blais Born in Quebec, Marie-Claire Blais published her first novel at the age of 20, and has gone on to publish 20 novels to date in France and Quebec-all of which have been translated into English-in addition to five plays and several collections of poetry. All of her writings have met with international acclaim. Winner of the Prix Medicis, the Prix Belgo-Canadien, the Prix France-Quebec and many others, Blais continues to devote herself to work that is proud and exacting. Linda Gaboriau Linda Gaboriau is an award-winning literary translator based in Montreal. Her translations of plays by Quebec's most prominent playwrights have been published and produced across Canada and abroad. In her work as a literary manager and dramaturge, she has directed numerous translation residencies and international exchange projects. She was the founding director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre. Most recently she won the 2010 Governor General's Award for Forests, her translation of the play by Wajdi Mouawad.
